Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Load-shedding will not be eliminated in 2018 and the people will have to wait till 2019 for its complete elimination, National Electrical Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) informs the government.

According to the 2016 report of NEPRA’s State of Industry, load-shedding will not come to an end in 2018. The report state the power shortage would be 3710 MWs in 2017 and in 2018 it will be 500 MWs. However, the report also predicted that the country will have a power surplus of 224 MWs in 2019, 1334 MWs in 2020, and 4694 MWs in 2021.

Moreover, the report also stated the demand during peak hours in the coming years. The peak hour demand would 23,816 MWs in 2017, 25,140 MWs in 2018, 26,439 MWs in 2019, 27,725 in 2020, and 29,092 MWs in 2021.

As further stated in the report, the power supply was expected to be 20,106 MWs in 2017, 24,640 MWs in 2018, 26,663 MWs in 2019, 29,059 MWs in 2020, and 33,776 MWs in 2021.

The report went on to state that in 2017, the power generation capacity would be 24,643 MWs, and in 2021 it would be 41,950 MWs.

K-Electric:

According to the NEPRA report, load-shedding will be eliminated from Karachi in the upcoming year, and K-Electric will have a power surplus of 1832 MWs in the next three years. The power demand in Karachi in 2017 is 231 MWs more than the power supply. But the load-shedding in the city says otherwise.

This year, the electrical power supply by K-Electric is 3128 MWs. In peak hours, the power demand is 3359 MWs. In 2020, K-Electric’s power demand will rise to 3894 MWs, and its power supply will rise to 5726 MWs.

The report said that K-Electric will have a power surplus of 138 MWs in 2018, 447 MWs in 2019, and 1832 MWs 2020.

Between 2010 and 2015, K-Electric did not undertake any major investment, said the report.

In five years, K-Electric has only added 3 kilometers of overhead transmission wires. It has also added a 220 KV underground line, and 132 KV and 660 KV voltage level systems. During these past years, K-Electric has also restored 4 grid stations.

By 2027, K-Electric will make an investment of 27 billion rupees, according to the reports.